Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., says relations between the two countries are going through a "tectonic shift."

Last week on a visit to Israel, Oren reportedly told Israeli diplomats during a briefing that Jerusalem and Washington are like "continents drifting apart," Haaretz reported.

"I said shift, not rift, but that may be a subtlety that escaped the Israeli ear," Oren told the Washington Post about the briefing, given in Hebrew at the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

His comments about disagreements with the White House come in the wake of pressure from Washington over the Gaza Strip blockade and construction disputes in east Jerusalem.

"There are disagreements, I'm not going to be Pollyannaish," Oren said. "But there are two qualifiers you have to attach. One, we have had disagreements with other administrations in the past, and the litmus with the relationship is not whether there are disagreements, but how you approach the disagreements."